The Industrial Crisis by L. A. S.

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 24, 1903

The Industrial Crisis

By L. A. S.

THE prediction that a crisis is at hand in the great struggle between the forces of organized labor and those of organized capital in this country, need no longer be regarded as the utterance of an alarmist; for its truth is now clearly seen and admitted by those engaged in this struggle, and who are therefore in a position to know the doctrines and purposes upon which it is based. Here are the statements made on the subject by a representative of the socialist movement, which aims to transfer the struggle to the domain of politics, and promises relief by the setting up of a socialist government. In the Chicago Record-Herald of March 15, Mr. A. M. Simons, editor of the International Socialist Review, says:—

It is getting to be a commonplace to declare that social conditions are approaching a crisis. Even the most conservative are forced to recognize the fact that present society is in a state of most unstable equilibrium. The tremendous struggle between organized laborers and organized capitalists is approaching a climax. Millions of organized workers are standing in opposition to a compact organization of a few individuals controlling billions of capital.

The socialists, if this writer correctly represents them, believe that the capitalists have control of the machinery of the government, and make use of it to enforce their terms upon the army of men whose industrial activities they direct; and hence the remedy must lie, they think, in a movement which will wrest the government from the control of the capitalists, and place it in the hands of the wage-earners. Both sides, he says, are preparing for the final struggle, and “the lines are now drawn so close that no favors are granted on either side.” As evidence of this, he cites “the recent rejection by Congress of the eight-hour bill, on which the American Federation of Labor had concentrated its efforts, and the defeat or disfigurement of all legislation asked for by the workers in the last Congress.”

Arrayed against the socialist movement, he sees the federal “injunction,” the “military, police, and deputies,” the recently formed “National Economic League,” and the “Manufacturers’ Association,” and “the strength of the Roman Catholic Church.” These “all indicate the intrenchment of the capitalists for a last desperate battle.”

The coming struggle is also foreshadowed, he says, by the fact that the country is now on the crest of a wave of commercial prosperity, which is sure to be followed by the trough of depression. Such a period has always, he says, been productive of “tremendous conflicts between capitalists and laborers.” The present conditions may at any time give rise to an acute stage of the conflict, which will be attended by the gravest results. “If, as is constantly threatened, there should be a great strike on the transportation system of this country, especially if it included the street railway system of Chicago, or the union stock-yards, so as to give an extremely acute local center of disturbance, it requires no alarmist to foresee the certainty of much bloodshed.”

Mr. Simons sees but one way of avoiding “a bloody internal conflict which might even verge on revolution,” this one way being socialism. But this remedy, when tried, will be found to be wanting, for the reason that it makes no provision for eliminating that evil thing which is the root from which all strife and oppression spring,—that is, selfishness. There is only one plan in the world which does make provision of this kind, and that is Christianity. And therefore Christianity, and not socialism, is the one means by which relief is to be obtained from the ills of which the socialist complains. All those who are trusting in anything else will be drawn into the impending conflict, which no human power can now avert. But these signs of the times are pointed out in order that men may be warned of the evil to come, and persuaded to turn to a higher power than that of earth for safety. If men will pause and listen, they will hear a message from above which is being sounded unto the uttermost parts of the earth,—a message of the salvation of God, proclaiming the power of God unto salvation from sin now, and from the whole curse speedily by the coming in glory of Him who has purchased the earth, whose kingdom is to overthrow all other kingdoms, and whose government will be perfect and eternal.

L. A. S.